Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Are you Greatful?

I admit, I went here for my spouse, I wasn’t too excited to go to a place with an all vegan menu, in fact, I haven’t been to a place with an all vegan menu before but I found several Items on the menu that I liked.

The place is interesting and very “new age-y”, for example, our waitress came over to our table and told us the topic of conversation for the day was “Who inspires you” and encouraged us to discuss this topic amongst ourselves.Now I have observed obviously married couples who sit across from each other in a restaurant and do not utter a single word to each other for their entire meal.This may be helpful for them; they won’t have to stare at their plates, other diners, or risk almost falling out of their chairs because they are leaning over so far with their heads cocked to the side, straining to eavesdrop upon our conversations.Seriously, it happens nearly every time we are out. To those who are most blatant, one of us will look directly at them and ask them a question and try to draw them in to the conversation.After all, they were already listening, they may as well engage, and most do.It makes our outings even more fun.Anyway, interesting idea and not one I’ve seen elsewhere, maybe it will save a few relationships.

Some items are listed as “live” on the menu, I asked the waitress what that meant (these are plants after all, once you harvest them, aren’t they dead)? It means that they weren’t heated above 115 degrees and therefore keep most of their nutrients and flavor. Many ingredients are organically grown locally at a farm named “Be Love Too”. Okay, so the name is a little odd, but I like the organically grown locally part. I’m a big proponent of the whole eat local craze, at best, it is hopefully making me healthier, at least, it is supporting local family farmers and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

To drink, I ordered the “I AM EFFERVESCENT” (see I told you the place was “new age-y”) This concoction is house made ginger-ale served on ice with fresh ginger juice, lemon juice and agave topped with sparkling water.I liked it, it was VERY “ginger-y”, if you like eating very sharp ginger snaps around the holidays, you’ll enjoy this drink. The "served on ice" part is important.You get a bottle of room temperature water on your table which is poured into glasses without ice. "It’s better for your digestion".

photo courtesy of Wikipedia

My spouse ordered two items to drink; the first was some wheat grass concoction that was a deep green color and the second was a shot of “I AM ENLIVENED” which is live Klamath Lake blue green algae.What would possess people to drink pureed Oregon lake moss is beyond me.My spouse told me that this particular algae from this particular lake was supposed to have powerful therapeutic effects. I just kept thinking about what kind of diseases you could catch from ingesting it. What did it taste like? Please! What do you think pureed lake moss tastes like? It pretty much tastes like it smells, so if you like the smell, you'll love the taste.

For an appetizer we had the “I AM CONNECTED” which was sprouted almond hummus & homemade crackers.The crackers had a base of shredded carrots and were totally encrusted on both sides with sesame seeds.Our waitress told us that they dehydrate the mixture and that’s what makes them crunchy.I don’t know if the hummus was good.It was served ice cold and after three bites, I could no longer taste anything but the large amount of hot sauce that someone had stirred into it.Bummer.

﻿﻿﻿

wrap

﻿

﻿﻿

I am humble

﻿﻿

For an entrée, I had the “I AM HUMBLE”, which is Indian curried lentils over quinoa (pronounced Keen-Wah, according to the waitress) with sautéed spinach and roasted potatoes, drizzled with a spicy mint chutney.I had never had quinoa before, at least not that I remember, to me, quinoa can best be described this way; If couscous could procreate, their infants would be quinoa (they seemed like baby couscous to me).This was okay, but again, it had so much hot sauce in it that I couldn’t feel my tongue or the roof of my mouth after about the fourth bite.I also burned the back of my throat and esophagus.To me, this ruins the entire enjoyment of eating, why eat if you can taste nothing.I only ended up eating half of it.Maybe this stuff is awful and they hide that fact by making it mouth-burning spicy. My spouse had a wrap which was advertised as live.It went half eaten as well.

For Dessert, we shared a lemon, poppy seed pie which was nearly flavorless.But maybe it only seemed that way because my taste buds had been deadened by the hot sauce in my meal. The poppy seeds served no purpose other than being annoying objects that became stuck in my teeth. I wouldn't order this again.

Anyway, we had fun together, just like we always do.I wish you could have been there with us.